New Jersey’s Judge Rejects Bid by Gov. Christie to Freeze Atlantic City Spending

On A New Jersey judge on Friday rejected a bid by Gov. Chris Christie’s government to halt spending by cash-strapped Atlantic City, which the Gov. debated was required to protect the tax revenues for the city schools.

Julio Mendez, the Superior Court Judge refused to order the city to halt all the spending & divert what little remaining cash it has to school district.

However, the nearly bankrupt seaside-gambling hub could discover itself back in court with state that sued on Monday. Both sides are due back 19th April, unless Atlantic City makes its 15th April payment to district or reach a deal on payments.

Christie’s move was 1 of several that added to City’s woes & kicked off a week of mounting defamation, perhaps the nastiest so far during city’s recent financial crisis, in which Governor Christie had called Mayor Don Guardian a “liar.”

That same day, the Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Atlantic City’s credit score deeper into junk territory & the Borgata Casino Hotel & Spa won right to appeal 4 years of property taxes after Judge Mendez discover that the city violated an 88.2 million dollars settlement contract by failing to pay.

Gov. Christie & the state Senate leaders want state to takeover the city operations, saying that the local officials haven’t done enough to cut short the expenses as casino industry suffered from the competition in the neighboring states.

City had anticipated to shut down on Friday after running out of cash. Nevertheless, this week its 9 public sector unions decided to convert to monthly payroll schedule, giving city breathing room until the quarterly tax payments arrive in May.

Gov. Christie said that the city’s paycheck-to-paycheck planning will leave schools broke.

“The school district will not be able to operate” if it doesn’t receive around $8 million a month it’s owed from city, said Dan Dryzga, the Assistant Attorney General to the court.

The city said that a payment isn’t due until 15th April, said an attorney representing the city.